Ten years ago: Armstrong's doping confession on Oprah Winfrey
DPA
· 16.01.2023
Lance Armstrong was recently in Paris. Cycling across the Place de la Concorde, up to the Arc de Triomphe and back down the Champs Élysées. Just like he used to do when he won the Tour de France seven times in the French capital.
Lance Armstrong undesirable person in cycling
Only this time, Armstrong was travelling virtually on his interactive roller trainer Zwift. Ten years after his spectacular doping confession in France, Armstrong is still an undesirable figure at the Tour and in cycling in general.
In January 2013, Armstrong's monument was finally brought down. The Texan admitted everything to celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey. EPO, testosterone, cortisone, growth hormones and blood doping? His answer was always the same: "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes". He didn't really feel any better after the interview, the former cycling star recently admitted in the podcast "Lance Armstrong: the rise, fall and redemption of a cycling legend" by Joe Pompliano. "But I told myself I'd rather do it this way and pop the balloon."
Armstrong today: "I wouldn't change anything"
Armstrong had previously been banned for life by the American anti-doping agency USADA. US investigator Jeff Novitzky and USADA boss Travis Tygart meticulously reconstructed the machinations of this man of power. Today, a greying Armstrong in a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up can talk about the difficult time with a certain ease; back then, his very existence was at stake. Letters from insurance companies fluttered into his house every week and the whole affair cost him 111 million dollars. "I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to provide for my family," recalls the former rival of Jan Ullrich, with whom he is now friends.
The lifeline turned out to be an investment from 2009, when he put 100,000 dollars into a fund run by investor Chris Sacca, who at the time was investing in the start-up company Uber, among other things. Armstrong's investment is said to have increased 300-fold. "That helped," says the 51-year-old. The figures were "magical". The founder of the cancer foundation Livestrong has always had a business sense.
Lance Armstrong has his own podcast
Today, Armstrong seems to have found his new place in life. He is now married to his long-time partner Anna Hansen, runs a bike shop and coffee shop in Austin and is on air once a week in his own podcast, sometimes welcoming old companions and rivals such as Ullrich, George Hincapie and Bradley Wiggins. "I've managed to land on my feet. I have five beautiful, healthy children. I wouldn't change a thing," reports Armstrong.
He no longer has access to cycling. "I only report on it," emphasises Armstrong, not hiding the fact that his current status annoys him. "If I had just been any cyclist, none of this would have happened. The story was too good," says Armstrong. A cancer sufferer who wins the Tour de France. You can hear that Armstrong would have liked a second chance in cycling.
Armstrong: "It was the perfect doping agent"
Former Telekom pro Rolf Aldag, who also confessed to doping and is now head of sports at Bora-Hansgrohe-team, assumes that the Armstrong case is "fine from a sports law perspective". "There are rules for that and Lance certainly had enough lawyers. On the other hand, it's about the moral, ethical side and I'm probably the wrong person to judge that," said Aldag in an interview with the German Press Agency.
No rider is listed in the Tour winner list from 1999 to 2005. "You can't go seven years without a winner. There has to be a winner there. That doesn't make sense. Then promote someone else," said Armstrong. The only problem is that the runners-up at the time around Ullrich and Co. hardly have a better reputation.
Ten per cent increase in performance
Today, Armstrong would "like to go back and take some things back" from a time when he terrorised people like former team coach Emma O'Reilly or former professional cyclists Christophe Bassons and Filippo Simeoni, who did not want to take part in the dirty doping business.
But even with today's knowledge, he would probably have used doping agents back then. "It was the perfect doping agent. Ten per cent increase in performance and only detectable in the body for four hours," says Armstrong, who still rides his bike at home in Austin or in Aspen/Colorado. However, he prefers to ride along the Champs Élysées on his home trainer.
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